Study Backs Nuclear test Veterans' Claims

(Dompost dated 16th June 2008) - by Ruth Hill

Nuclear-test veterans say the Government must finally "stop sitting on its hands" now international experts have upheld Massey University research exposing the extent of the genetic damage they suffered.

Associate Professor Al Rowland's world-first study - which showed naval veterans who were exposed to nuclear test in the Pacific 50 years ago had 300 per cent more genetic mutations than normal - has just been published in the prestigious journal Cytogenetic and Genome Research. 

  Experts who reviewed the paper said the results had significant implications for nuclear test veterans in New Zealand and in Britain.

"Because there will be no chance to repeat the investigation in the future, it is highly desirable and, in fact, necessary to publish the paper now," one wrote.

The Pulication is expected to pave the way for more studies on other groups, and bolster the case for a $36.5 million class action being taken against the British Government by New Zealand, British and Fijian veterans.

  Roy Sefton, chairman of the New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans Association, which commissioned the study, said he expected the Government to act now rather than wait for the outcome of the legal action.

 "When the results first became public last year, the Government promised to respond when the study had been peer-reviewed and published.

"Well, now they have to stop sitting on their hands and do something."

Of the 551 Kiwi veterans involved in Operation Grapple (the code name for nine British tests carried out in the Pacific between 1957 and 1958) more that 400 are dead, mainly from cancer.

Mr Sefton, who was 17 when he served in Operation Grapple, said it was criminal that governments had been able to ignore the suffering of veterans and their children for so long.

  Nuclear test veterans became eligible for "war disablement pensions" only in recevent years, but they still must apply on a case-by-case basis.

Their children have access to free counselling, but can only get help with medical costs if they have spina bifida, cleft lip or palate, acute myeloid leukaemia or adrenal gland cancer.

Mr Sefton said someone with genetic damage of this magnitude would clkearly suffer health problems "and pass junky genes on to their children and grandchildred too".

  Any compensation package should be extended to other nuclear veterans, including those who served on Mururoa Atoll in the 1970s, and to serving defence personnel who mught be exposed to depleted uranium.

Mr Sefton said veterans were united in their cause and backed by highly respected scientists.

"We are going to fight till we get our settlement."

A preliminary court hearing will be held in London in February.

The veterans' lawyer, Gordon Paine, said publication of the reserch was "very important in terms of the legal aspect of the case".

"Publication means it can no longer be ignored."

Veterans Affairs Minister Rick Barker was unavailable for comment.

However, in March he said the Government was monitoring international research and the programmes and entitlements made available to the children of nuclear test veterans by other governments.

The latest research has been eagerly received by British veterans.

This year, the British Government agreed to fund an in dependant study into the health effects of its own veterans - as long as the Massey research was found to be credible.

Of the 22,000 British soldiers who witnessed nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s, only about 3000 are still alive.

The 2nd re union (35th Year Anniversay of being deployed) of the "Mururoa Veterans' Society' was held in Napier at the Napier RSA from Fri 16 to Sunday 18 May 2008.

Past reunions have been

Tauranga 2003 - 30 year Mururoa Anniversary

Western Australia - 2003 

Napier 2008 - 35 years on

When is the next reunion? There is one being planned in Tauranga now, for around the weekend of 24th July 2010 - details will be available when known 

Other reunions you may like to go to can be found here  

Chief of Navy (Rear Admiral David Ledson) thoughts

I went to a funeral last week for a retired Navy Lieutenant Commander. He had been a Gunnery Instructor - got commissioned from the ranks and we served together in TARANAKI - he the Gunnery Officer - me a Midshipman under training.

My experiences on that day caused me to ask, then think about, two questions; which I think are especially relevant to our Veterans.

I visited him in hospital a couple of days before he died. The last time I had seen him was about 20 years ago. Apart from a very short telephone conversation last year we had had no contact in all that time.

As was to be expected the funeral was a sad affair - but many good things were said about the dead man. this process - a critical part of the grieving process, prompts the question. 'Why do we often honour people only in their death and not in their life?' - and that is the first question.

However, the funeral did have a signficant Navy component - and it turned to be a sort of Gunners' reunion. I met my first RNZN Gunnery Instructor - from 1969 - men I had served with at sea as I moved through the rank structure. Men, with whom my life had become entwined through shared ships, shared shipmates - and shared experiences.

Men with whom I had shared physical and emotional experiences - and many of them were retired senior ratings - a few, retired officers.

As we relived our time together - and spoke about what had happened in the years since we had moved on our separate and different paths - I asked some of them 'Why do we only meet at funerals?' - and this is the second question.

In this year, designated the year of the Veteran, these are questions deserving special consideration.

They are also relevant to the Navy's Core Value 'Comradeship' and whether it really does apply to everyone who serves in the Navy - yesterday's Sailors, as well as today's and tomorrow's.

My belief is that the concept of 'comradeship' provides a bridge across the generations. It provides a means of making the stories and 'salty dits' of individual Sailors our stories. It enables us to weave them into the fabric that is the history of Our Navy. It enables us to honour our shipmates while they are still able to bask in our admiration and respect.

So, to give practical effect to the Value - and to give my answer to the questions - we should meet regulary. We should get together as men and women who have the shared experience to having served in the RNZN. And this is the important point for us to all consider - the common thread that joins us in the context I am writing about, the thing that makes us 'unique', is not service upon the sea, it is not service in a Navy, it is service in the RNZN - Te Taua Moana o Aotearoa.

And because I think this is important, I have been supporting the efforts being made to bring the RNZN Association and ex-Royal Naval Men's Association together - and I have been talking to our Second World War Sailors about meeting once a year.

My suggestion to them has been that we meet once a year at the place we have all served at. That is the place that is Home of the Navy - Te Kainga o Te Taua Moana - at the Naval Base.

There is an old saying 'United we stand - divided we fall' that can be changed to be made relevant to this letter: 'United we tell the story of the Navy - divided we tell only our own story'.

(taken from "Navy Today" dated February 2006)